


The Beginning of the End (Allyson)

by Firewhisperer13



Series: Guardians of the Galaxy Series [3]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Avengers & Guardians of the Galaxy crossover, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, F/M, Marvel - Freeform, Science Fiction, mcu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24741214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: On a flight to follow a distress signal, the Guardians of the Galaxy encounter the wreckage of a spaceship. There, they rescue a man known as Thor, aka the Norse God of Thunder. Confirming Gamora’s fears, the Mad Titan, Thanos, is coming for the six Infinity Stones... and that includes Gamora. All Rights Reserved, Marvel Entertainment Studios, 2018.
Relationships: Peter Quill/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Guardians of the Galaxy Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789015
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm aware that some references in here seem to come out of left field and, quite frankly, don't make sense. That's because they're related to my Avengers series, something I haven't posted yet because I'm re-writing the earlier works. It'll be out soon, I'm officially making the re-writes my #1 priority. There are also some missing chapters at the end for the events of Endgame that I have yet to write. This has also been bumped up on my priority list.

I took a deep breath and slowly opened my eyes, not so sure whether or not I was ready to get up yet. There was still a sort of ache in my eyes, and my vision hadn’t quite adjusted to the world around me. The blankets over me were keeping me warm and tangled up, to the point where I wasn’t sure I would even be able to leave. And, of course, there was the weight of an arm over me, keeping me down. I let out a sigh as I debated sitting up and actually starting my day, when I felt someone press themselves against me, move some of my hair out of the way, and kiss my cheek.

“Mm… Good morning to you, too,” I muttered, slowly turning myself around to face him. He had that smirk on his face, the one that meant he was happy, and his blue-green eyes were already sparkling, despite the early morning awakening.

“Did you sleep alright?” Peter asked, resting a hand on my cheek.

“Yeah, I managed to knock out almost immediately. You?”

“I was up for a little bit longer.” I drew back slightly and raised an eyebrow at him. “I promise it was only, like, twenty minutes.”

I sighed again and pulled myself back against him, enjoying the warmth that contrasted the cold ship.

“This is so much better than getting up,” I said with a smile.

That was short-lived, however, when the door flew open, shooting Peter and I up and causing my heart to leap straight out of my chest. Rocket was standing there in the doorway with a pissed expression on his face as he shouted out the doorway.

“Relax, I’m askin’ them!” he screamed.

“So much for a peaceful morning…”

“Rocket, what the hell are you doing?” Peter demanded.

“Everyone wanted to know when you and Ally were gettin’ up. You’re the only ones of us who know how to cook around here.”

My confusion quickly switched to anger.

“So you threw open our door and started screaming, making me practically have a heart attack, because you all wanted _breakfast_?”

“Yeah. What’s the big deal?”

I grunted and threw myself back down onto the bed for a second, before launching myself out from under the covers and feeling around until I located my brush. I could go out there and stand in front of them in my pajamas with no issues, but messy hair? Hell no.

Without waiting for Peter, I followed Rocket out of the room and into the kitchen. No one was even in there, save for Groot, who was staring down at some old portable game Peter had given him. Groot had grown up pretty fast, and was now in what appeared to be his teenage years. But _because_ he was in his teenage years, he was incredibly difficult to deal with, and if we told him to do something, chances are, he wouldn’t do it. I could still remember Peter’s relentless efforts to get him to clean his room. Needless to say, they weren’t working almost four years later.

“‘Morning, Groot,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair as I rummaged around, looking for ingredients. I didn’t know what I was going to make, but maybe looking at everything we had would give me something.

“I am Groot.”

I slammed the fridge door shut and whipped around to glare at him.

“What do you mean, ‘everyone already ate?’”

“I am Groot.”

I clenched my hands into fists and quickly spun on my heel, before storming into the cockpit, where I found Drax, Gamora, Mantis, and Rocket, all bopping along to some song that one of them had put on.

“Rocket, do you want to explain?” I seethed, crossing my arms and leaning against the doorway.

“Explain what?”

“That we got a distress signal?”

“What about it?”

I groaned and leaned my forehead against the doorway before turning around. I nearly crashed into Peter, who had taken the time to fully get dressed and groom himself before coming out here. Thinking fast, he extended his hands out and caught me in my tracks.

“Hey, what happened to breakfast?” he asked with a quiet, patient voice.

“Something else came up.” I turned my head around to glare at the back of Rocket for a moment. “Turns out we got a distress signal… and everyone already ate.”

As I stormed away to get dressed, I heard Peter shout at Rocket.

“Dude! The hell is your deal?”

I angrily shook my head as I yanked my clothes out of the drawers and threw them on, trying to get ready as quickly as possible and deal with this situation we were put in. With as much force as before, I yanked my jacket out of the closet, and ended up knocking a box down from the top of the shelf in our closet.

“Shit…” I groaned, before leaning down to pick up everything that had fallen out. In the midst of scraping up random notes Peter and I had left each other on the fridge and pictures that were so old we didn’t want to keep them in frames, I picked up something smooth and metallic. I carefully pulled it out from everything else, and smiled down to see my old name tag from that stupid diner I had worked at when he’d first met me. I suppose, in a way, it was pretty important, but God, I’d hated that place.

The only other thing I had from around that time was the snake ring. The years were starting to show on it, and the silver was starting to become garnished, but I never wanted to get rid of it, even if it was just some cheap piece of jewelry.

My spirits now lifted, I set the box back on the shelf and slipped my boots and glove on before making my way back into the cockpit. I passed Peter on the way back to my seat, and I leaned down and pressed a kiss against his temple before taking a seat. _Rubberband Man_ started to play over the speakers, and we all relaxed and started lip-syncing along to the song. My foot tapped back and forth to the beat as the nebulous around us sped by at the speed of light.

“Sing it, Drax!” Peter called from above us.

I looked over to see Drax dead asleep. I heard Rocket yawn, and it made me wonder if they had been up flying this ship all night.

“Why are we doing this again?” he asked.

“It’s a distress signal, Rocket,” Gamora sighed. “Someone could be dying.”

“I get that, but why are we doing it?”

“‘Cause we’re nice.” I raised an eyebrow after Peter said that. He was a caring person and all, but that didn’t seem like a motive for him. “And maybe whoever it is will give us a little cheddar cheese for our effort.”

There it was.

“Which isn’t the point,” I added, pointing a finger up at him.

“Which isn’t the point,” he parroted. “I mean, if he doesn’t pony up... “

“We take his ship,” Drax interjected. I didn’t realize he had woken up.

“Exactly!”

“B-B-B-Bingo!”

I looked up at Peter with a stern and disapproving glance. He caught my eyes and made a face while shaking his head and waving his hand out, indicating that those weren’t really his plans.

“We are arriving,” Mantis announced, looking up from her screen with a curious and wistful look in her eyes.

“All right, Guardians, don’t forget this might be dangerous, so let’s put on our mean faces.”

I could still hear the beeping from Groot’s game, and it was starting to get really distracting. He almost never put that thing down, and it was like he had no interest in anything else but playing that stupid game.

“Groot, put that thing away, now,” Peter ordered, his tone more fatherly now. “I don’t wanna tell you again.” The beeping didn’t stop. “Groot.”

“I am Groot!” he mocked.

“Whoa!” we all shouted, appalled at his choice of words.

“Language!”

“Hey!”

“Wow. You got some acorns on you, kid.”

“Ever since you got a little sap, you’re a total d-hole. Now, keep it up, and I’m gonna smash that thing to pieces!”

“Whoa, Rocket, cool it,” I warned.

The third Milano shot forward, and my eyes widened at the horror. There were scattered remains of a ship slowly floating out into the eternal void, but that wasn’t what caused my stomach to churn. It was the endless amount of bodies, drifting lifelessly and occasionally bumping into others, causing some of the crystals on them to break from the surface of their skin and move somewhere else.

“What happened?” I croaked.

“Oh, my God.”

I wanted to close my eyes to the carnage, but at the same time, I couldn’t look away.

“Looks like we’re not getting paid.” I rolled my head over to look at Rocket.

“Really?”

Suddenly, a body slammed against the windshield with great force, causing us all to jump and scream.

“Wipers! Wipers!” Rocket shouted. “Get it off.”

Their eye that was pressed against the windshield shot open and started to dark around wildly, as though the person attached to it were thrown into a sudden panic. Which made sense, but I was more shocked that he was alive.

“Oh, my God, he’s still alive.” I shot up out of my seat and moved toward the back of the ship. “Peter, help me out.”

I stuck on one of the space suits and attached a tether to my waist before opening the door.

“Be ready to help me carry him once I get back in.”

I jumped out the back of the Milano and immediately started to shiver. The space suit and the jacket could only protect me from a certain amount of cold, and the nothingness outside was definitely pushing the limit. I carefully stepped across the windshield until I reached the body, and somehow managed to pick him up. He was quite large, and looked as though he were made of all muscle, which made it even more shocking I was carrying him right now. With some resistance, I managed to bring him back into the Milano, and with the help of Peter holding his feet, we got him down onto the table. Everyone gathered around and started to inspect him, staring in awe. I had to admit, what I saw was impressive.

“How is this dude still alive?” Peter questioned.

“He is not a dude.” We all looked at Drax. Did he know something we didn’t? “You’re a dude. This is a man. A handsome, muscular man.”

“I’m muscular,” Peter protested, his voice cracking slightly.

“But who are you kidding, Quill? You’re one sandwich away from fat.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It’s true, Quill. You have put on weight.”

“What?”

I moved around the side of the man and picked up one of his arms. It had quite a bit of heft to it, and I had to run my hand along his arm to make sure he was even real. He almost seemed like he was made of metal, but… he felt real.

“Allyson, do you think I’m…” Peter trailed off as he watched me.

“He is anxious, angry.” I looked over to see Mantis pressing her hand against his forehead, the ends of her antennae glowing. “He feels tremendous loss and guilt.”

In the background, I could still hear the beeps of Groot’s game.

“It’s like a pirate had a baby with an angel.”

“Wow. This is a real wake-up call for me. Okay. I’m gonna get a Bowflex. I’m gonna commit. I’m gonna get some dumbbells.”

“You know you can’t eat dumbbells, right?”

“It’s like his muscles are made of Cotali metal fibers,” I finally muttered. I still couldn’t tell whether he was a real person or not.

“Stop massaging his muscles.” Peter was trying to sound casual, but I could tell he was jealous.

Frustrated, I dropped the guy’s arm and crossed my arms.

“Wake him up.”

Mantis’ antennae glowed as she rested a hand on him again, and quietly whispered, “wake.”

We all jumped as he shot up from the table and stumbled until he lost momentum. He stopped to look around, then slowly turned to look at all of us. He was incredibly tall, with one missing eye covered by an eyepatch. He was panting with a wild look in his eye, and I reached over to smack Peter to get him to lower his gun.

“Who the hell are you guys?”


	2. Chapter 2

"The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal."

We all kept our eyes on Gamora as she stared out the window. Thor, the name of the man we'd rescued, told us everything- about his home, Asgard, and how Thanos came and destroyed the ship of his people in the blink of an eye, killing everyone. Now, he had two Infinity Stones, which was wildly dangerous. We'd given him a blanket and some soup to help him feel better, though he still refused to say much.

"To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people, planet by planet, massacre by massacre. Including my own." My heart softened as she crossed the room. Gamora had opened up to me in the past, but her father was a sore spot, so I'd tended to avoid the subject. "If he gets all six Infinity Stones... he can do it with the snap of his fingers like this." She demonstrated with a harsh, piercing snap. 

"You seem to know a great deal about Thanos," Thor interjected, his voice still a low, grieving growl. A few of us looked around at each other, knowing it probably wouldn't be wise to let him know why. Drax, however, didn't pick up on the signals we were sending to each other. 

"Gamora is the daughter of Thanos."

The spoon clinked down in Thor's bowl, and his eye slowly drew itself up to Gamora, filled with an unmatchable fury.

"Your father killed my brother." He stood abruptly, slamming the bowl down on the armrest of the chair we'd sat him on, storming closer to Gamora.

"Oh, boy."

"Stepfather, technically," I informed him, attempting to diffuse the situation. "And she hates him as much as you do."

I physically tensed as he loomed over her, but as soon as his hand clapped down on her shoulder, I felt my muscles relax. Still, I couldn't admit to not being confused.

"Families can be tough. Before my father died, he told me that I had a half-sister... that he imprisoned in Hel. And then she returned home and stabbed me in the eye. So I had to kill her. That's life though, isn't it, I guess. Goes round and round and..."

I snickered, crossing my arms and looking at the floor.

"Tell me about it."

Thor looked over at me, seeming confused I'd been able to speak up. He glanced from Gamora to myself, almost asking her if it was safe to inquire, before addressing me.

"What do you mean?"

"I... my parents sold me for drug money and then just abandoned me to be experimented on. That's how I can do this." I stretched my arm out behind me and grabbed the bowl he'd been using from across the room. "But, I've also pretty much been scarred for life from it. I could never forgive them, if I saw them." 

Thor remained silent for a few moments, before placing a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him with a raised brow as Peter crossed the room, coming closer to us.

"I feel your pain."

"I feel your pain as well," Peter interjected awkwardly, attempting to move Thor's hand from me, "because... I mean, it's not a competition, but I've been through a lot. My father killed my mother. And then I had to kill my father. That was hard." I heard Rocket sigh from nearby. "Probably even harder than having to kill a sister. Plus, I came out with both my eyes, which..." He now noticed Thor was holding up his spoon and appeared to be contemplating its existence.

"I need a hammer, not a spoon."

He walked up toward the escape pod and began to wave his spoon around.

"How do I open this thing? Is there some sort of..." He started slamming the buttons on the keys that unlocked the pod. "A four-digit code, maybe? Maybe a birthdate."

"What are you doing?" Rocket questioned.

"Taking your pod."

I shrugged and prepared to walk away, knowing we had bigger things to worry about than Thor and some hammer, but when Peter stepped up with his chest puffed, I couldn't help but halt in my tracks. Nothing good ever came out of Peter standing like that.

"No, you're not." He'd deepened his voice to a ridiculous octave. "You will not be taking our pod today, sir."

"Quill, are you making your voice deeper?"

"No."

"You are. You're imitating the god-man. It's weird."

"No, I'm not."

"He just did it again!" Mantis pointed straight at Peter, her eyes wide.

"This is my voice."

Thor stepped down from the platform and stood eye-to-eye with Peter, making sure to intimidate him before speaking. Peter cleared his throat, definitely quivering in his skin a bit.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Are you mocking _me_?"

I sighed. I loved Peter very much, I really did, but he could be such a child. At times, it was uplifting and entertaining, providing light in the darkest situations. But at others, it couldn't get more irritating.

"Stop it. You did it again."

"He's trying to copy me." He turned to us, as though we would come to his defense just because he was our leader.

"I need you to stop doing that."

"Enough!" Gamora cried, nearly silencing them.

"He did it first."

"We need to stop Thanos," she reminded them. "Which means we need to find out where he's going next."

"Knowhere," Thor offered.

"He must be going somewhere." I nearly laughed. Mantis still didn't know about all the different planets out there.

"No, no. Knowhere? It's a place, we've been there before. It sucks." We watched as Thor started to remove packs of freeze dried foods. "Excuse me, that's our food."

"Not anymore."

"Thor, why would he go to Knowhere?"

"Because for years... half of the Reality Stone's been safely stored there with a man called the Collector." 

The group let out a simultaneous sigh. The Collector is not a name one should be proud to utter when speaking of something being kept safe. But something caught my ear that triggered something in the back of my mind: _half_ of the Reality Stone. I'd seen the other half of it, back when we first had our hands on the Power Stone, when we met the Collector.

"If it's with the Collector, then it's not safe. Only an idiot would give that man half a stone."

"Or a genius."

"Did you say half?" I questioned, silencing the others.

"Yes. The other half is safe on Earth with a girl named Elanor Rogers. Probably, oh, eighteen at this point."

"So, the Reality Stone is in the hands of a teenager, and the Collector?" Peter interjected.

"How do you know he's not going for one of the other stones?"

"There are six stones out there. Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week when he decimated Xandar."

My stomach churned. After everything we'd done to save that planet, Thanos just destroyed it in the blink of an eye. My hand moved to touch Peter's elbow, needing some sort of comfort after hearing that news.

"He stole the Space Stone from me when he destroyed my ship and slaughtered half my people. The Time, Mind, and half the Reality Stones are safe on Earth. They're with the Avengers."

"The Avengers?"

"Earth's mightiest heroes."

"Like Kevin Bacon?"

I snickered. Peter still insisted that the story of _Footloose_ was a perfect demonstration of heroism on Earth. but after a few years, I'd come to know better. As far as Earth movies from the 1980's goes, it's not the best. 

"He may be on the team. I don't know. I haven't been there in a while."

I raised an eyebrow. He was an Avenger? What was he doing here, then? He could get their help.

"As for the Soul Stone, well, no one's ever seen that. No one even knows where it is."

I watched as Gamora's shoulders tensed, her posture taking on a defensive appearance. Something was wrong- she knew something.

"Therefore, Thanos can't get it. Therefore, he's going to Knowhere. Hence, he'll be getting the Collector's half of the Reality Stone. You're welcome."

Gamora turned around, but refused to meet any of our eyes. I watched her very closely trying to pick up on what was going on.

"Then we have to go to Knowhere now."

"Wrong. Where we have to go is Nidavellir."

"That's a made-up word," Drax protested.

"All words are made up."

"Nidavellir is real? Seriously?" I watched as Rocket jumped up on the table. "That place is a legend. They make the most powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the universe. I would very much like to go there, please." 

Peter and I glanced at each other and rolled our eyes. Of course Rocket knew about a place that specialized in weapons. That was his version of paradise. 

"The rabbit is correct, and clearly the smartest among you."

"Rabbit?" 

"Only Eitri the Dwarf can make me the weapon I need. I assume you're the captain, sir," Thor said to Rocket. 

"You're very perceptive." Peter scoffed.

"You seem like a noble leader. Will you join me on my quest to Nidavellir?"

"Let me just ask the captain. Oh, wait a second, it's me! Yeah, I'll go."

"Wonderful."

"Except for that I'm the captain," Peter interrupted. 

"Quiet."

"That's my backpack."

"Go sit down."

"Look, this is my ship." I could hear them in the background, but I was mainly focused on Thor getting closer to our pod, which I knew Rocket could unlock for him. "And I'm not goin' to-" Peter stopped. "Wait, what kind of weapon are we talking about here?"

"The Thanos-killing kind." Peter stuttered for a few moments, starting at Thor before being able to find his words. 

"Don't you think that we should all have a weapon like that?"

"No. You simply lack the strength to wield them. Your bodies would crumble as your mind collapsed into madness."

"Is it weird that I wanna do it even more now?"

"A little bit, yeah."

"If we don't go to Knowhere, and Thanos retrieves another stone, he'll be too powerful to stop."

"He already is."

"I got it figured out." I sighed. I saw right through what Rocket was doing, and if Thor could as well, he'd realize Rocket wasn't and could never be the captain. "We got two ships and a large assortment of morons. So me and Groot will go with the pirate angel here. And the morons will go to Knowhere and try to stop Thanos. Cool? Cool."

"So cool."

As Thor stepped into the pod, Peter approached Rocket, getting just close enough so that Thor most likely couldn't hear what he was going to say.

"For the record, I know that you're only going with him because it's where Thanos isn't."

"You know, you really shouldn't talk that way to your captain, Quill." I watched Peter sneer. "Come on, Groot."

Groot's eyes never left the screen of his game as he wandered toward Rocket and Thor. 

"Put that game down. You'll rot your brain."

The rest of us watched as they climbed into the pod, and Rocket started it up. 

"I bid you farewell and good luck, morons." I sighed and shook my head.

"Great. Now he thinks that's what we're called."

Everyone went about their lives after the pod dropped down. I saw Gamora walk away, head down and hands fiddling with each other. I knew I might now get many answers, but I had to know. I reached over and kissed Peter's cheek before following her.


	3. Chapter 3

I found Gamora sitting around, staring out a window at the same stars, the same nebulas, the same galaxies. She held that small, jewel knife she always kept around in one hand, a vice grip indicating whatever thought hole she'd fallen down caused her to be tense. I didn't want to startle her, that could prove to be fatal for me with that weapons in her hands. Thankfully, my steps were loud enough to cause her to look at me. I'd ask if she wanted to talk about it in a moment, but I knew I'd get too wrapped up in her problem and forget to check on something for Peter's safety and well-being.

"Hey, Gamora?" She turned her head and stared at me, expressionless. "Do you know if these grenades are the blow-off-your-junk kind or the gas kind? Because Peter was thinking of hanging a couple from his belt right in that region. But he doesn't want to if they're..." I trailed off as I glanced at her face again. She didn't even smirk, like she usually did when I started to go off about one of Peter's not-so-genius ideas.

"I need to ask a favor." Her voice never wavered, but she didn't sound confident, either.

"Yeah, sure," I replied cautiously.

"One way or another, the path that we're on leads to Thanos." She stood and looked up at me, making sure our eyes met.

"Which is what I think the grenades are for." Her collected look turned into a glare, and I realized I'd stepped into Peter territory in terms of inappropriate timing. "I'm sorry. What's the favor?"

Something different crossed her features, and she turned to look back out the window. 

"If things go wrong- if Thanos gets me-" She turned to look at me again, and a suddenly heavy sensation struck my chest. "I want you to promise me you'll kill me."

My mind went blank for a moment. I didn't know how to respond to her request, I could only feel the brick she'd suddenly hit me with. My closest friend, the only other girl I had to keep me company. I couldn't just lose her, especially not at my own hands. But... looking at the desperation in her eyes, clearly she knew something I didn't that was dangerous.

"What?"

"I know something he doesn't." She pushed away from the window and started to walk out. "And if he finds it out, the entire universe could be at risk."

"What do you know?"

"If I told you, you'd know too."

I stepped closer to her, casting a look down on her figure that radiated concern, with a little bit of anger. 

"If it's so important, shouldn't I?"

"Only if you want to die."

"Why does somebody always have to die in this scenario?" If I couldn't get in the information out of her by direct asking, maybe I could piece things together.

"Just... trust me. And possibly kill me."

"I mean, I'd like to. I really would, but you-" Her glare silenced me. 

"Swear to me." She seemed to debate something, before looking back at me. "Swear to me on your life."

I reeled back a bit, shocked. That was a pretty big demand of her, considering how selfless she had become over the years. But... for her to say that, and the look on her face... she must be deadly serious.

"Okay." 

"Thank you."

She peered over my shoulder and walked away, leaving me to deal with what I'd just agreed to. I kept looking at the point of the wall behind where she'd been standing, tears now beginning to slip down my cheeks. I jumped suddenly as two arms wrapped themselves around my waist, a chin resting on my shoulder.

"Did you find out about the grenades?"

I tried to hide my sniffles, but the jerking of my shoulders gave me away. Peter walked around the other side of me and looked down, concern overriding the rest of his emotions. 

"Ally, what's wrong? What-what did she say to you?" I shook my head as he wiped a tear from below my eye.

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"You look pretty shaken up..." I blinked away a little more water falling from my eyes, then Peter grabbed onto my chin and pulled me up for a kiss. My hands remained limp at my sides for a few second, before bringing them up to rest on his arms. The heaviness pulling my heart down started to lift.

And then, a crunch from the shadows shifted our attentions away from each other. I could make out the figure of Drax, watching us from the corner with a bag of nuts in his hand. Peter's nose crinkled as I turned away, suddenly incredibly embarrassed.

"Dude, how long have you been standing there?" Peter inquired.

"An hour." My cheeks flared. That means Drax might know now, too.

"An hour?"

"Are you serious?" I groaned, my speech muffled from my face suddenly becoming buried in Peter's shirt.

"I've mastered the ability of standing so incredibly still... that I become invisible to the eye. Watch."

Peter and I watched, dumbfounded, as Drax moved his hand, slow as a snail, toward his mouth, opening in his jaw as though it were an old door hinge, refusing to move.

"You're eating a zarg-nut."

"But my movement..." He glanced down at the snack food. "...was so slow... that it's imperceptible." Peter and I looked at each other, and rolled our eyes at the same time.

"No." He continued to chew, as though somehow, our opinion would change.

"I'm sure I'm invisible."

"Hi, Drax."

Peter and I chuckled as Mantis entered the room and smiled at the self-proclaimed invisible man.

"Damn it."

Drax crumpled the bag and started to storm away.


	4. Chapter 4

I felt a sense of relief as we came to Knowhere, finding it still in one piece. The Milano flew through the eye of the head, and strangely enough, we weren't immediately greeted by air traffic. In fact, the planet below was all too quiet. Maybe they'd ordered an evacuation?

"This place looks deserted." I unbuckled my seat belt and moved to lean against the dashboard, trying to find signs of life down below.

"I'm reading movement in the third quadrant," Drax announced. I managed to glance back at Gamora, who, somehow, had gone ashen. I didn't really know what an ashen green looked like, but I presumed this was it. 

"Yep. I'm picking that up, too. Let's put down right here."

I gulped as Peter steered the Milano to land on solid ground. This may be it, our first and possibly last confrontation with Thanos. Depending on how things turned, we could stop him from getting all the stones. I reached over toward the back of the ship and felt around until I found a blaster, then quickly snapped my arm back and stuffed it into a holster sewn into my belt. I didn't want to have to use it, but I couldn't just break my promise to Gamora. Peter glanced at me curiously, but I refused to meet his eyes as the two of us led the troops down the ramp.

Crates of oddballs kept sealed waited to be taken inside on the loading dock. One clear display case stood abandoned, blocking us from being able to see past the opening in the bay. Peter crept ahead of all of us, peering around the corner to make sure it was safe.

"I don't have it," I heard the Collector gasp. Peter waved his hand, signaling us to follow and get a little closer.

"Everyone in the galaxy knows you'd sell your own brother if you thought it would add even the slightest trinket to your pathetic collection." My stomach jumped. That must be the voice of Thanos.

Just behind a set of crates, Peter paused and held up his fist, trying to get the rest of us to halt with him. However, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis just kept on marching, completely ignoring his warning. I kept back my chuckle and patted him on the shoulder as he stood and held out his arms.

"I know you have half of the Reality Stone, Tivan." 

I came to stand beside Gamora, and my eyes widened. Thanos stood, hulking, at least ten feet tall. His skin a purple hue, the rest of him covered in gold armor. A matching gauntlet fit snug against his left hand, and on it, I saw two glowing stones: a bright blue, and the purple we'd worked so hard to keep safe, out of the hands of people like him.

"Giving it to me will spare you a great deal of suffering." He planted his foot on the Collector's chest.

"I told you. I sold it. Why would I lie?"

"I imagine it's like breathing for you."

"Like suicide."

"You do understand. Not even you would surrender something so precious."

"I didn't know what it was." Thanos looked up, frustrated.

"Then you're more of a fool than I took you for."

"It's him," I heard Drax whisper, as though he were just realized what was happening. 

"Last chance, charlatan. Where's the stone?"

Only then did I notice the look in Drax's eye. He stared down Thanos with the look of a madman, craving revenge. He had to be talked down, before he did something that could get us all killed.

"Today..."

"Drax," Peter hissed. "Drax."

"...he pays for the deaths of my wife and daughter."

"Drax, wait," I begged. He reached down and pulled one of his blades from his boot. "Not yet, not yet, not yet."

He didn't listen, and chose to march on. I refused to give up, and stepped forward to try and grab him. I crept around the corner and managed to come out ahead of him. I placed a hand on his chest, and for a moment, he hesitated.

"Drax, Drax, Drax. Listen to me." He tried to push me away. "He doesn't have the stone yet. Even if, he still needs another half of it to have its full power. If we get even this half Tivan has, we can stop him. We have to get the stone first. Yeah?"

"No." I sighed, frustrated. "For Ovette, for Camaria."

I struggled as he attempted to force my body out of the way, stumbling as he managed to get me off him. But, before he could run in, Mantis got her hand on the back of his head, and her antennae glowed.

"Sleep," she order. Drax immediately sunk to the ground, but unfortunately, no one moved fast enough to break his fall. He collapsed with a loud 'clang', and as all of us jumped, Thanos snapped his gaze in our direction. Now we were in trouble.

"Okay," I sighed, pulling the knife I always carried on me out. "Gamora, Mantis, you go right. Peter and I-" Before I could finish my sentence, Gamora stood up and started to move left and broke out into a sprint. "Your other right." 

Gamora let out a cry as she charged and used a set of crates to launch herself closer to Thanos. She swung at him with one of her swords, but he dodged out of the way and managed to grab the blade. A smirk crossed his face as he snapped the metal in half, but Gamora was prepared for that. She pulled her other sword out of her belt, and, catching him off guard, she stabbed him through the soft flesh beneath his chin. She then removed the small, ruby encrusted blade and jabbed it through his heart. With a violent yank, she pulled away and allowed him to fall to the ground. Tears formed in her eyes as purple blood began to spill from his mouth, gasps and screams beginning to fall out of her lips as her arms fell to her sides, going limp from sudden grief.

"Why you, daughter?" he whispered, reaching out for her with his hand covered by the gauntlet. Gamora crouched down, unable to control herself as she sobbed. Thanos' eyes began to grow cloudy, and his hand fell limp at his side. Peter, Mantis, and I stood there in disbelief. Was this really over? Had it all ended here? It seemed too easy.

"That was quick."

The Collector applauded from the case Thanos had thrown him in.

"Magnificent!" he cried. "Magnificent! Magnificent!"

_"Is that sadness I sense in you, daughter?"_

That sense of dread flooded right back. That was Thanos' voice, coming from somewhere far away.

_"In my heart, I knew you still cared."_

The body of Thanos faded away in a red dust, and the rest of the world he'd constructed around us followed, leaving in its place flames and broken floors. My eyes stung from the smoke as I looked around. He'd already gotten here... he'd already gotten the stone...

_"But one never knows for sure. Reality is often disappointing."_

And there he appeared, the real him, striding confidently toward Gamora. I suddenly felt my hands snap into position, and I grabbed onto the blaster I'd nabbed before we left the ship. 

"What- why'd you take that?" Peter whispered to me.

"That is, it was."

"I can't tell you."

"Now..." He clenched the fist of his hand with the gauntlet, revealing two and a half stones: purple, blue, and a little bit of red. "Reality can be whatever I want. To a degree, but once I get that second half, it will bend at my will."

I suddenly wished I could warn that girl- Elanor, Thor said- about what was coming.

"You knew I'd come." Gamora's voice was weak.

"I counted on it. There's something we need to discuss, little one."

She reached down and tried to grab her sword, but Thanos was too fast, and he grabbed her by the back of her jacket, suspending her just above the ground.

"Thanos!"

Drax began to charge, but before he could make it, Thanos closed his fist, and made Drax collapse into a bunch of cubes. My hand flew to my mouth to suppress a gasp, and I felt Peter grab onto me as I bit down on my tongue.

Mantis popped up from behind her crate and gasped. Smirking, Thanos pointed the gauntlet in her direction and unraveled her like a ribbon.

Without thinking, I pushed out of Peter's arms and held the blaster out, stepping closer and pointing it right between his eyes.

"Let her go, Grimace," I ordered, my voice taking on a low growl.

"Allyson."

"I told you to go right," I murmured, swallowing back my tears.

"Now? Really?"

"You let her go!"

"The best friend," he drawled, glaring down at me.

"No. I like to think of myself as a Titan-killing, sort of convenient source to vent to because for a long time, I was the only other female on board. Let her go."

"Allyson."

"I'm gonna blow that nutsack of a chin right off your face."

"Not him."

My eyes flickered down to Gamora, but my arm refused to follow. I couldn't do it, I couldn't. Despite what I'd said, I really considered her my best friend, on the female side, at least.

"You promised. You promised."

"Gamora, I can't," I shook my head as my nose began to sting, the dogs biting at the back of my throat.

"You promised."

Regretfully, my arm lowered to point at her. My hands began to tremble as I started to black out, spots filling the edges of my vision.

"Oh, daughter. You expect too much from her." Thanos trained his eyes to me. "She asked, hasn't she?"

He knew what he was doing, taunting me with what he thought I couldn't accomplish. But if I had to, I would. It would hurt, I couldn't get past it, but I knew I had to.

"Do it." I froze again, and as though impatient, he shoved Gamora closer to me. "Do it!" 

No matter how I tried to psych myself up to do it, I couldn't get my finger to pull the trigger.

"I told you to go right," I repeated with the stamp of my foot.

"Thank you for being a friend for me, Allyson." I choked again as I forced a smile. 

"Thanks for keeping me sane."

I shut my eyes and finally pushed the trigger down. I expected to hear a blast, a scream, something. But instead, only a whirring sound. Horrified, my eyes shot open, and through the tears sticking to my eyelashes, I saw bubbled coming from the barrel. The blaster suddenly faded from my hands, leaving me defenseless.

"I like her."

Then, in a flash, the two of them faded away into a portal, leaving only the flames and Peter hidden safely behind a crate. I couldn't contain myself, and with a scream, I collapsed onto my legs and reached out to where Gamora had been, as though I could bring her back. I could hear Drax and Mantis' bodies reforming again as I groped at the air. I felt as though I couldn't breathe, my throat and lungs closing in on themselves. I screamed as tears ripped at my skin. 

"No, no. Bring her back, please!"

One of my hands fell across my mouth, while the other covered my eyes, and I slowly laid back on the ground, gasping, hiccuping, screaming, sobbing. I wallowed, falling into a dark hole, even as Peter rushed over and pulled me up, holding my back against his chest as one of my hands fell to my side, the other across my chest.

"It's my fault," I whispered. "I couldn't do it."

"Allyson, Allyson, come on. We have to go and find her."

I felt as though I were made of cement, unable to move. 

"Ally, please, we have to go."

"Quill, she will not move."

I felt Peter pick me up and carry me back to the Milano. He set me down on my feet, but my legs collapsed beneath me, and I leaned against the wall. Peter tried to reach down, but Drax and Mantis pushed him away, leaving me to deal with the weight of what I'd done.


	5. Chapter 5

I continued to watch the patterns of light fly past my face as I attempted to process everything. I kept replaying the events passed over and over again, my imagination creating thousands of paths for how things could've gone. Hundreds of roads where she came back safe with us, and I'd walked the one where I froze. I couldn't get the expression on her face out of my head. I'd never seen Gamora so vulnerable, so afraid to make another move. 

Swallowing another wave of tears, I pushed myself away from the glass and trudged my way into my room. My eyes wandered around, and a strange sensation took over me. I somehow felt lost, as though I suddenly forgot what my life had been like before Thanos took Gamora. None of us ever had a routine, but there were little things we'd do regularly. Now, it was like none of it existed in the first place.

Somewhere in my mind, I registered that someone had come up behind me, but the rest of me refused to react. I just stood there, looking around like I'd never seen this room before. 

"Allyson?" I barely turned my head around, not wanting to look Peter in the eyes.

"I feel... like I failed." My voice garbled in my throat, barely reaching a volume above a desperate whisper. "Thanos was right."

"What?" He stepped forward and rested a hand on my shoulder, trying to bring my gaze up to him. "How could you possibly believe one word that freak said?" My arms crossed over my stomach. 

"Gamora expected too much of me," I answered, shrugging for a reason I couldn't quite explain. "I wasn't strong enough to kill her. My emotions got in the way." 

"Ally, any one of us would have hesitated." I wanted to believe what he was saying, but I couldn't keep the words Thanos had said from bouncing around in my mind.

“She looked me right in the eyes and asked me to kill her,” I spat out, facing the wall while addressing Peter. “That’s why I was so upset when you came in.”

Finally gathering my strength, I whipped around and looked dead at the man behind me. His concerned expression quickly switched to one of shock as I stared him down.

“Do you know what that’s like? To have someone look at you with love and trust— someone you cared about deeply— and have them say ‘I need you to kill me’? Do you have any _idea_ the sort of repercussions that has on the human psyche?”

My voice rose to unheard levels as I began to back Peter out of the room. Up until this point, I’d been a generally quiet person, only having to slightly speak up when scolding. Now, my hysteria had risen past the point of no return, and I no longer had control of my volume. To hell if everyone else heard. This shit needed to be said!

“She trusted me to do that. Gamora trusted me to be able to live with that blood on my hands, that memory in my head. And you know what? I genuinely thought I could. For once in my life, I thought I could be brave and just do it. But no! I watched as tears ran down her face, as she gasped and pleaded for me to shoot her, and I couldn’t. And by the time I finally grew a pair, Thanos figured me out and used that damn stone against me! And now he has her, and for some reason she couldn’t tell me, _we’re all screwed_!”

Peter continued to stare as he stood on the other side of the threshold. I couldn’t read his expression—it was likely a mix of several things— and he didn’t even try to open his mouth. With a slight weight lifted off my chest, I reached for my blade and marched past his gawking figure, determined.

“Uh, Allyson? Where are you going?” Peter called after me.

“We’re going after Gamora.”

I heard his pair of footsteps following me, and I didn't manage to get far before Peter wrapped one of his hands around my wrist and spun me around, as though me looking at him would somehow stop me. 

"Ally, I get you're upset, but we need to think this through." I pulled my hand away and crossed my arms again. "Are we really equipped to take on Thanos?"

"I don't think we have time to ask that question, Peter. From how desperate Gamora sounded, we're probably on a pretty short leash." He sighed and slowly let go of my hand, but I knew he wasn't done yet.

"I just think you should take a moment to clear your head, Allyson. I don't want you to go all in for this and--" My anger bubbled again.

"And screw something up?" He turned red.

"Well, I-I wasn't gonna say _that_ , but..." He trailed off and suddenly refused to meet my eyes.

"But you were thinking it." I scoffed and threw my arms up. "Unbelievable. Aren't you supposed to support me?"

"Well, under normal circumstances, yes. But you're really not thinking here, Allyson. Trust me, you'll end up regretting something because you just acted before thinking." I balled my hands into fists and glared at him.

"I don't care. We don't have time to just sit and think things through." 

I marched past him and into the main area of the ship. Peter was being ridiculous. He didn't understand the gravity of the situation like I did, and there was only so much I could convey to him. Besides, Thanos had two and a half reality stones at this point. He was more powerful than Gamora, and everyone else in the universe, at this point, and if we didn't do something fast, he'd be able to find the others. 

"Allyson?" 

I turned and came face to face with Mantis, her antennae glowing as she looked at me with worried eyes. She couldn't sense moods without touching someone, but I'm sure my frantic mindset was an easy thing to read from my face.

"What troubles you?" Drax asked, stepping up to dwarf Mantis' tiny figure. 

"We need to go after Gamora," I seethed. "She's in danger and we need to rescue her."

I turned on my heel and walked into the cockpit, trying to find the navigation system. I wasn't quite sure what we'd be tracking, but I knew we'd find her somehow. 

"Does anyone know what we're looking for, exactly?"

"Allyson, you don't even know where the planet is and you're trying to find it." Peter approached me very slowly, as though he were worried I would suddenly attack him. "I really think you just need to slow down, and--"

"Is this how you would be if I were in her shoes?" I knew this was a dirty tactic, but if I could guilt him into going along with this, it might work. "Would you wait around and try to think of something, no matter how long it took, before coming to help me?"

His eyes bounced around my face, and I could tell he knew what I was doing. But at this point, I didn't care. After a few moments, he sighed and shook his head.

"I can't believe you."

"You're stuck with this, love."

"But it doesn't matter. I don't know how to find her, babe." 

" _Mantis, listen very carefully."_ We all turned our heads to see the green clad girl looking at a projected image of... Nebula? " _I need you to meet me on Titan._ "

I smirked at Peter.

"Ask her for the coordinates."


	6. Chapter 6

"Peter, did you see that?"

I turned to him and waited for a reaction, hoping I wasn't seeing things. I could have sworn I watched a ship hurtling toward the surface, and with any luck, that was Thanos.

"Yeah, I did." He steered the ship closer to the surface, until we found the site of the crash. A circular ship sat among the settling dust, snapped in half. My eyes widened as I stared at it, waiting for some form of life to emerge.

"Nebula could be in there." I tapped Peter's arm and pointed toward the ship. "We need to check it out."

"It could be Thanos."

Peter landed the Milano on the the orange dust, and we all reached for our weapons before the ramp lowered and we got ready. This could go a few ways, but mentally, I needed to be prepared for any of them. I sighed and stared out into the vast planet covered in debris, my feet suddenly unable to move. I so desperately wanted it to be Gamora, alive and okay, waiting for us after her escape. But that was a dream scenario, the least likely to happen.

A pair of hands rested themselves on my shoulders, causing me to flinch slightly before I looked back to see it was just Peter.

"I need you to be calm about this," he muttered into my ear, brushing some of my hair aside. "I don't want something happening to you." I adjusted the dagger on the sleeve of my jacket and pulled away from him. 

"I'll try my best."

Vaguely, I could hear voices from inside the wreckage. They spoke lowly, keeping me from being able to pick out their specific words. But at least one of them resembled a deep, male voice.

“That could be Thanos,” I whispered, looking at the remains of our group. “It could be Gamora.”

“Okay, let’s.... be strategic about this.”

This time, when he held up his fist, everyone paused. A hesitant air bound us all together; no one wanted to take the first step only to find disappointment… or a fate worse than death.

Peter crouched down into the burnt sand and removed an energy grenade from his belt. After glancing at all our faces, he threw the metal sphere into the darkness and quickly shot up.

“Get ready,” he whispered. “We go in on my--”

The grenade exploded, sending out a powerful pulse of energy that would knock down anyone in the ship.

“Or we can go now.”

We ran through the dust to see three figures in the darkness. None of us could make out their faces, but their shadows didn’t match those of either Thanos or Gamora. I hesitated for a split second, wondering if we had anything to worry about, before shaking it off and realizing anything that inhabited this ship couldn’t be good.

“Thanos!” Drax cried as he threw one of his blades.

One of the figures created some sort of orange shield to defend themselves. Something red and flimsy shot out of the darkness, wrapping itself around Drax’s head and knocking him to the ground with impressive force. Peter fired his blasters at the one that appeared to be made of metal, and the two of them took to the air and shot at each other. A large explosion that the other creature made caused Peter to tumble backwards, throwing both of them onto the ground. I shot my arm out toward the one that had created a shield and wrapped it around his neck. His eyes widened in shock as I pulled myself forward and kicked him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. I could hear explosions and the clangs of metal as the figure I was fighting summoned two small versions of the shield from earlier, one on each of his hands.

“Die, blanket of death!”

Drax managed to rip the piece of cloth from his head as the metal figure pinned him down. I got my arms around the strange wizard and held him against me as Peter grabbed the other metal figure and held his blaster against their head.

“Everybody stay where you are,” he ordered. “Chill the eff out.” He reached around and made his mask crawl back, then pointed the blaster at the metal figure holding Drax down. “I’m gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?”

“Yeah. I’ll do you one better.” The metal figure removed their helmet to reveal a human man, likely getting into the later years of his life, and I raised an eyebrow. How did they get onto one of Thanos’ ships? “Who’s Gamora?”

“I’ll do you one better. Why is Gamora?”

“Drax!” I snapped.

“Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you I’m gonna French fry this little freak.”

“Let’s do it,” the man challenged. “You shoot my guy and I’ll blast him. Let’s go!” He summoned some sort of taser and held it inches from Drax’s face.

“Do it, Quill! I can take it.”

“No, he can’t take it!” Mantis cried, her voice wavering.

“She’s right. You can’t,” the wizard I was holding confirmed.

“Oh, yeah? You don’t want to tell me where she is? That’s fine. I’ll kill all three of you, and I’ll beat it out of Thanos myself. Starting with you.” He pressed his blaster further against the other metal figure’s temple.

“Wait, what, Thanos? All right, let me as you this one time. What master do you serve?”

“What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say, ‘Jesus’?”

“You’re from Earth.” I slightly loosened my grip on the wizard, starting to realize they may not be our enemies.

“I’m not from Earth, I’m from Missouri.” I shook my head

“Yeah, that’s on Earth, dipshit,” the man fired back.

“Peter, you definitely lived there long enough to remember that,” I scoffed.

“What are you hassling us for?”

“So you’re not with Thanos?” the figure, possibly a girl based on their voice, Peter was holding asked, their voice slightly muffled by their mask.

“With Thanos? No, I’m here to kill Thanos.”

“He took my best friend,” I chimed in, fully releasing the wizard. “Wait, who are you?”

The final mask fell away, revealing a young boy, likely no older than sixteen. My eyes bounced around at the motley crew they’d managed to assemble. Not that we were much better at the moment.

“We’re the Avengers, man.”

My eyes went wide, and I stepped to the side of the wizard. Thor had mentioned these guys, maybe they knew him!

“Oh.”

“You’re the ones Thor told us about!” Mantis sounded joyful again.

“You know Thor?” The man in the metal suit seemed shocked, almost as though he never expected to hear that name again

“Yeah. Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving.”

“Unbelievable,” I muttered, slapping my hand against my forehead.

“Where is he now?” the wizard asked.

“He went off to some place… Nida-- something,” I explained. “Said he needed a Thanos-killing weapon." I looked around at everyone, trying to get a feel of things. "We need some sort of plan." I glanced at Peter. "Nebula should be here by now. I'm worried she couldn't get out of there alive."

"No doubt Thanos is going to come looking for us." I turned around and looked at the wizard.

"Why's that?" 

He moved his hands in a strange pattern, and the gold on his necklace began to shift, revealing something glowing green inside. I stared at it for a moment before realizing what it was.

"You have the Time Stone..." I shook my head and placed my hands on my waist. "This is really bad." I looked at my feet a little longer, before standing straight and looking at everyone.

"We need a plan. But first... who the hell are you people?"

"I told you, we're the Avengers." I glared at the kid.

"I meant names."

"O-Oh. Well, I'm Peter." I sighed. That wouldn't get confusing... "That's Mr. Stark." He pointed to the other metal man. "And that's Doctor Strange."

"Tony," Stark added.

"I'm Allyson, that's also Peter, and they're Drax and Mantis." Everyone looked around at each other, falling into an awkward silence. "Well! If that's it for introductions, let's get to work on a plan."


	7. Chapter 7

I couldn't tell what time of day it was based on the sky. It looked as though the sun were coming up over the broken horizon, but it could've been the middle of the night. All of us had left the inside of the broken ship to try and come up with some sort of plan to deal with Thanos. We needed him to come here, and we could take that gauntlet from him, or at least one of the stones, to stop him. We couldn't let him complete that gauntlet, otherwise half the universe would die. 

"The hell happened to this planet?" Peter asked, taking slow steps forward as he held up an orientation device. "It's eight degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place."

"Yeah, we got one advantage." I tried to keep my eyes trained on Tony Stark as Mantis jumped around in the background, testing the low gravity. "He's coming to us. We'll use it." He turned around to look at Mantis bouncing and Peter Parker looking around at the planet as though he were lost. "All right. I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one." I nodded my head and stepped closer to show I was listening. "It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need."

"Definitely don't want to dance with this guy," I sighed, crossing my arms. "We just want the gauntlet."

"Are you yawning?" I followed Tony's point to Drax, who was, in fact, letting out a big yawn while Mantis looked at him as though she'd never seen one before. "In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Did you hear what I said"

"I stopped listening after you said 'we need a plan'," he admitted, not sounding the least bit ashamed. 

"Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page." I raised an eyebrow at Tony, wondering who this 'Mr. Clean' he was comparing to Drax was. Maybe he was someone famous on Earth? 

"See, 'not winging it' isn't really what they do," Peter tried to explain.

"It's true. We tend to just sort of rush in without a plan. And if anyone just happens to make one it's... generally ignored."

"What exactly is it that they do?" Peter Parker asked, pointing in the general direction of Drax and Mantis.

"Kick names, take ass," Mantis answered confidently.

"Yeah, that's right."

"No, honey," I sighed, shaking my head at her and giving a look as though she were a child. Tony stared at the pair in disbelief, mouth hanging open slightly as he attempted to form some sort of response to their childishness.

"All right, just get over here, please." Drax and Mantis continued to linger in their spot. "Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?" I scoffed as a smirk formed on Peter's face.

"God, please don't boost his ego," I begged, looking at Tony through the cage of the hand my head rested in.

"'Mr. Lord. 'Star Lord' is fine." He flicked his head over toward Tony and Peter Parker to get our pair to come closer, and for whatever reason, they listened. Normally, they didn't respect Peter. 

“We gotta coalesce. ‘Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude— “

“Dude, don’t call us plucky,” Peter interrupted. “We don’t know what it means.”

“ _You_ may not know what it means; clearly some of us are better educated than others.”

“Allyson, how is that possible? You’ve literally never been to school once.” I heard Tony clear his throat, drawing Peter and my attention back to him. “All right, we’re optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except it sucks, so let me do the plan and that way it might be really good.”

“Tell him about the dance-off to save the universe,” Drax urged, clearly not reading the situation.

“What dance-off?” Peter Parker asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“Like in _Footloose,_ the movie?” Peter’s eyes lit up at the mention of that movie, the movie he’d described to me what seemed like ages ago. But now, the last thing we needed was Peter getting distracted by mentions of classic Terran movies.

“Exactly like _Footloose_.”

“Oh, Jesus…” I muttered, burying my face in one of my hands.

“Is it still the greatest movie in history?”

“It never was.”

“Don’t encourage this, all right?” Tony hissed at Peter Parker.

“All right.”

“Thank you for that.” I cast a purposeful glance at Peter, trying to shut him down. He cleared his throat awkwardly, casting his eyes between myself and the ground for a few moments before nodding, as though understanding he needed to stop.

“We’re getting no help from Flash Gordon here.”

“Flash Gordon? By the way, that’s a compliment. Don’t forget, I’m half human. So that fifty percent of me that’s stupid, that’s one hundred percent of you.”

“Hey!” I slugged him in the arm.

“Sorry, babe.”

“Your math is blowing my mind.”

“Excuse me.” Mantis’ voice was nearly drowned out by Peter and Tony’s arguing, but my turning in her direction seemed to draw everyone else her way. “But does your friend often do that?”

We all followed her gaze to see Doctor Strange levitating above the rocky ground, almost looking as though he were meditating, the Time Stone in his necklace glowing. Two green rings turned around his wrists, as though he were calculating something.

“Strange, we all right?”

His head began to twitch and thrash back and forth, his facial expression indicating he was in distress. It began to move faster and faster, almost looking as though it were going to fly off his neck, before his body suddenly went crashing to the ground and his eyes shot open. Tony rushed over to his ally to keep him from falling over as he attempted to get his bearings again. He was clearly in some sort of state of shock.

“You’re back. You’re all right,” Tony comforted. “Hi. Hey, what was that?”

“I went forward in time to view alternate futures; to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.”

“How many did you see?” Peter asked, still spooked as he placed his hands on my arms, standing behind me.

“Fourteen million, six hundred and five.”

“How many did we win?” Strange looked around at all our faces, his eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. He almost looked afraid to give us the answer, but did anyway.

“One.”

Everyone remained in a stunned silence, attempting to process this situation. Of the millions of directions this battle could go in, we had a .0000007 percent chance of coming away victorious. (Yes, I actually did that math. The things I do for you people…) Even with all our efforts combined, that didn’t leave us with much room for error, if any. We needed more than a semblance of a plan, which was unfortunately all we had at the moment. Slowly, everyone began to break away from each other, as though needing space to process. I remained in the middle of the circle, arms crossed over my chest as I attempted to bring some sort of thought to my head. But instead, that number just kept running through my mind, flipping me out.

“Are you sure you can do this?” I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. “I just don't want to risk your life if it means--"

“I have to try, don’t I?” Peter buried his face in the crook of my neck. “The odds aren’t great, I’m sure they diminish if I sit this one out.”

“But it’s not worth it if you’re gonna get hurt.”

“That’s going to happen either way, babe,” I sighed. “And if it’s not me, it’ll be someone else. You know that.” I felt him sigh against my skin. “Did you seriously think Missouri wasn’t on Earth?”

“I was caught up in the moment,” he grunted. “Come on, Allyson.” I laughed as he let go and spun me around. “You’re gonna give me a hard time about this forever, aren’t you?”

“For as long as I can remember it.” He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead before pulling me close against his chest. To think about the odds… it was scary. The closer the battle came, the more my stomach began to churn. All of us but Strange had to hide away, since Thanos was after his Time Stone. My heart smacked against my chest as all of us waited in anxious anticipation. And it didn’t take long before a blue and black portal formed out of nowhere, and out from it stepped the large, purple figure of Thanos, that golden gauntlet resting on his hand.


	8. Chapter 8

He looked around the ruins of his old home, scanning the dust and remains of structures. He almost looked lost, as though he didn't know why he was here.

Or maybe he sensed the rest of us, and knew some sort of attack was incoming. I wouldn't be surprised, considering he'd known we were coming to retrieve half of the Reality Stone.

"Oh, yeah." Thanos' eyes rested on Strange as he sat among the ruins, appearing completely unfazed by the Titan's presence. "You're much more of a Thanos."

"I take it the Maw is dead." His voice rumbled through the silence, seeming to to cut through the landscape. Strange barely nodded, and I tensed as Thanos began to advance toward him. "This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission."

"You may regret that." Strange's threat was vague, but still held a weight to it. "He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts." My eyes quickly flashed to Peter, who had a smirk on his face.

"And where do you think he brought you?" Strange paused for a moment.

"Let me guess. Your home?" Thanos chuckled and set his foot down on a structure, giving him a slight elevation over Strange.

"It was." He closed his fist and the red stone on his gauntlet flashed. The broken, orange environment was slowly swept away, replaced by a beautiful and prosperous society complete with lush grasses and plants and technologically advanced structures. The star-like structures now hovered in the air, appearing to be ships, or maybe floating homes. "And it was beautiful. Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."

"Genocide."

"But random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike." His plan sounded more like homocide than genocide, but still wrong, nonetheless. "They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." The illusion of the Reality Stone faded away, putting us right back into the wasteland.

"Congratulations, you're a prophet," Strange deadpanned.

"I'm a survivor."

"Who murdered trillions."

"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers." He demonstrated with his bare hand, so nothing would happen before he meant it to. "They would all cease to exist. I call that... mercy." Thanos spoke as though he heard nothing wrong.

Strange got up, taking a determined stance. I took a deep breath as he stepped closer to the large, intimidating figure without fear.

"I'd finally rest..." Thanos continued, "and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

"I think you'll find our will equal to yours." Strange moved his hands about to summon the disk-like weapons he clearly preferred to use. Confusion warped Thanos' expression as he looked up, snapped away from his delusion of victory.

"'Our?'"

Peter and I shrugged before taking that as the cue, springing up but waiting for the chance to attack. Thanos lifted his gaze to the sky to see Tony pushing a large piece of one of the broken ships toward his head, barreling it down on him. I could have sworn I saw a flash of purple light before it crashed down, appearing to completely crush him.

_"Piece of cake, Quill._ " I nearly scoffed at Tony's confidence. Did he seriously think this was over?

"Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off."

Peter activated his mask and followed behind Tony as he flew around the other side of the piece he'd just dropped. As he stopped to hover in the air, a bright flash of purple completely decimated the large pieces of metal, sending them flying in all directions before suspending them in air. Thanos let out a loud scream, and as he closed his fist, a bright, red flash turned the metal into bats that pushed Tony back into the wreckage. Almost immediately, Peter Parker swung out from his place up above and shot a bit of webbing into Thanos' eyes. He had to hesitate for a moment to try and pull the sticky solution off of his face, allowing Drax to slide on his knees to slash one of his knives against the armor on his calves. Thanos yanked the white webbing off his eyes as Strange teleported himself closer to him. He summoned some sort of weapon- made out of the same energy as everything else he had- and blocked an incoming punch from Thanos as Drax attempted to strike him again.

Just as he kicked back the two of them, Peter activated the rocket boosters on his shoes and launched himself toward Thanos, shooting at him with his blasters. I stretched my arm out and grabbed onto a piece of junk to bring myself closer, and Strange summoned those disks he used as shields to fall beneath my footsteps. I bounded my way over to Thanos and attached an detonating paralyzer onto his back. Quick as that happened, I did a flip and landed, whipping around and sticking my middle finger in the air.

"Boom!" I dipped down into a portal Strange created.

"Don't let him close his fist." Strange's cloak flew from his back and wrapped itself around Thanos' hand with the gauntlet. As he struggled to get it off, Strange summoned another set of portals, allowing Peter Parker to fly through and land a couple hits.

"Magic," he cried excitedly. "More magic. Magic with a kick. Magic with a--"

Thanos grabbed Peter Parker by the neck and slammed him against the ground.

"Insect," he growled, before lifting Peter Parker up and throwing him at Strange, sending them both tumbling down. He ripped the cloak from his hand, only to be immediately met with frequent bursts of explosions. With a cry, he lifted and closed his fist, and the fires around him began to swirl, spiraling into the gauntlet before he closed his fist to shoot it back out, aiming for Tony as he attempted to fly away. Thankfully, the shot missed, and ended up knocking down the propeller of a giant jet engine. Peter Parker jumped down and shot out a web, sticking it to the gauntlet and swinging around in an attempt to pull it off, but Thanos managed to grab and throw him yet again. Suddenly, the propeller came skidding across the ground and slammed straight into Thanos, somehow barely phasing him.

A figure suddenly jumped down and kicked Thanos in the back of the head before standing in front of him, pulling out their weapon. Her blue and purple head glistened under the light of Titan’s sun, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She’d finally arrived.

Thanos smirked down at her, as though amused by her sudden appearance, before allowing it to fall into a grimace.

“Well, well.”

“You should’ve killed me,” Nebula snarled.

“It would’ve been a waste of parts!”

Nebula screamed and kicked him in the face, swinging her blade wildly back and forth in an attempt to strike him. She released it from her hand and allowed it to spin around his head, just barely missing his neck before returning to her like a boomerang.

“Where’s Gamora?”

He smacked her into a pile of debris, and in the split second he had his fist raised, Strange summoned a bunch of tendrils and wrapped them around the gauntlet before beginning to pull. He resisted against the force, until Drax slid on the ground and kicked the Titan’s foot out from underneath him. Peter took to the air and fired another electric paralyzer onto the ground. The fingers of lightning took hold of Thanos’ other arm, causing him to cry out in anguish as Peter Parker wrapped a web completely around his body. Tony landed and sprinted over to Thanos, wrapping his hands around the golden item and beginning to pull. Strange summoned a portal over Thanos’ head, allowing Mantis to drop down and land on his shoulders. She placed her hands on each side of his head as he thrashed and screamed, trying to break free from everyone’s control. He protested for a moment longer, then a cloudiness settled into his pupils, and the screaming settled into quieted grunts.


	9. Chapter 9

“Is he under?” Tony asked.

“Don’t let up.”

“He quick. He is very strong.” I took a glance at the large, threatening presence for a moment, before reaching over and snatching one of Peter’s blasters from his hand.

“Wha-- Allyson?” I blocked him out and took determined steps toward Thanos.

“Parker, help! Get over here!” He rushed to Tony’s side. “She can’t hold him much longer. Let’s go.”

“We gotta open his fingers to get it off.” I planted my feet firmly beneath me as I stared into the vacant gaze of the murderer.

“I thought you’d be hard to catch,” I taunted. “For the record, this was our plan.”

“ _My_ plan,” Peter corrected from far away.

“Whatever.” I waved my hand at him dismissively, trying to bring myself back into that place of anger. “You’re not so strong now, huh?” I paused for a second, attempting to ignore the uncomfortable twisting of my gut. “Where is Gamora?”

“My Gamora…” he whispered.

“No, bullshit!” I got in closer to his face. “Where is she?” He said nothing more, testing my last ounce of patience.

“He is in anguish.”

“Good,” I spat as he let out another pained groan.

“He… He mourns.” I continued to snarl at him, until it all began to sink in. As a sense of dread overwhelmed me, I shook my head back and forth.

“What does this monster have to mourn?” Drax shouted.

"Gamora.” My eyes flashed over to Nebula.

“What?”

“He took her to Vormir,” she calmly explained. “He came back with the Soul Stone.” My eyes darted down to the gauntlet, now seeing a fragile piece of orange, almost looking like amber, resting between the red and blue. “But she didn’t.”

I froze. She wouldn’t come back alive… That must have been what she was hiding from me; what she didn’t want me to know because I could be killed.

Gamora had died… for that?!

“Okay, Allyson, you gotta cool it right now.” I heard Tony’s voice as a distant echo. “You understand?” Don’t don’t. Don’t engage. We almost got this off!”

I felt nothing as I turned to look at the titan again. My heart, my lungs, my gut… everything was numb.

“Tell me she’s lying,” I managed to beg. He gave no response as tears began to prick my eyes, completely wiping my already blurred vision. “Asshole, tell me you didn’t do it!” I shouted as my throat constricted.

“I… had… to…” Biting, screaming anger replaced numbness.

“No, you didn’t.” I reeled back my hand and punched him square in the cheek, wanting to make him feel the pain I did. “No, you didn’t!”

“Allyson!” I punched again, causing the surface of the skin to break. “Hey, stop! Hey, stop!” I felt someone grab my arm and try to pull it away. “Stop!” I managed to pull away from Tony and hit Thanos again. “Hey, stop! Stop!”

“It’s coming, it’s coming. I got it, I got it!”

Just as Peter Parker managed to pull the gauntlet away, Thanos snapped out of his trance and immediately threw Mantis off, reaching for his prized possession, the thing he’d killed loved ones for.

“Oh, God.” Peter Parker jumped up and reached for Mantis, wrapping his arms around her to break her fall.

In a fit of rage, Thanos managed to grab onto everyone and throw them away as though they were nothing. Peter, myself, and Drax attempted to charge at him, but he closed his fist, shooting out a wave of purple that knocked us right back into the dirt. Tony put up much more of a fight, managing to hit Thanos once before he brought his skull down on him and sent him tumbling.

He raised his fist into the air, and as the purple gem glowed, an energy field of the same color enveloped one of the moons above our heads. A large explosion destroyed its entire surface, and its flaming rocks began to shoot down as he pulled his arm in the same motion. I felt my body shoot into the air as I laid defenseless, knowing I would be unable to catch myself when I fell back to the ground.

Thankfully, I could see Peter Parker out of the corner of my eye, darting around quickly in an attempt to catch everyone currently immobilized.

"I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. Sorry I can't remember anybody's name."

Strange lowered himself down onto the crumbling ground and moved his arms to summon tendrils of orange lightning that made a beeline for Thanos, breaking the land he stood on and knocking him down. Thanos jumped up and attempted to fire another purple wave at Strange, but the latter somehow managed to block it with what looked like broken glass and shove it back at him. He punched through the substance and pulled it back into his gauntlet, then shot it out at Strange, causing it to swirl in a way that sucked up the ground into its black hole. At the last second, Strange summoned one of his shields to defend himself, then turned the pieces of ground into jade butterflies that began to float past him.

As Thanos looked around, confused, Strange levitated again and moved his arms above his head. He formed a symbol with his fingers, and dozens of other pairs of arms suddenly appeared alongside his real ones. He quickly swung them down, causing hundreds of copies of Strange to flutter out and completely surround Thanos. Each one of them summoned a single strand of magic and whipped it at Thanos. Each one wrapped around his limbs, tying him down, and he began to pull in an attempt to get free from the bonds. However, Thanos managed to close his fist and shoot out a wave of purple that destroyed all the fake versions of Strange, sending what looked like his spirit back into his own body. He then yanked his fist toward himself, pulling Strange into a choke hold and grabbing onto the necklace he wore that housed his stone.

"You're full of tricks, wizard. Yet you never once used your greatest weapon." He pulled the golden eye from its rope and crushed it in his palm, allowing the bits of nothing to crumble to the ground. "A fake." 

Thanos threw him to the ground, rendering him unconscious before attempting to close his fist again. He didn't get the chance, however, as a piece of red metal flew out and wrapped around his palm. I managed to stand up again, before anyone else could, and tried to get my bearings long enough to get in there and fight, only to collapse back down onto the rock again. Tony quickly fell to the ground and landed gracefully, taking a strong stance in front of Thanos.

"You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it."

"Stark." My eyes widened. Did he just say his name?

"You know me?"

"I do. You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."

"My only curse is you."

Tony fired a group of tiny missiles at Thanos. Somehow, the gauntlet managed to keep them from hitting Thanos, but he was caught off guard long enough for Tony to shoot himself forward with some sort of bolster on his feet, and when he landed, his suit expanded to plant him into the ground. The hands of his suit turned into two large bolsters, and he used rocket propulsion to launch them into Thanos' chest. He managed to grab Tony's helmet and ripped it off, but somehow, it crawled right back over his face. Must've been made of the same stuff Peter's was...

Tony managed to block another punch, but it sent him to the ground as Thanos pulled the metal from his palm, allowing him to close his fist again. He tried to shoot a beam of purple at Tony, but he managed to somehow form a shield and plant it firmly on the ground. He threw the shield away and flew forward, securing himself before swinging out and punching Thanos in the cheek. He barely flinched as he wiped up a single drop of purple blood, smirking.

"All that for a drop of blood," he mocked.

Suddenly, he grabbed Tony's foot and flipped him over, causing him to fall onto his back and shocking him for a moment. Thanos loomed over him and began throwing repeated punches, to the point where Tony couldn't defend himself anymore, then grabbed him by the throat and blasted him back with a beam from the Power Stone. Tony focused his power into firing at Thanos, causing his suit to crawl away in certain areas. Thanos managed to get close enough to punch away Tony's helmet, and after a couple more failed punches, Tony summoned a blade and attempted to stab Thanos. 

However, Thanos managed to grab the blade, snap it from Tony's suit, and in a quick flash, stabbed it through the man's stomach. He drove it in deeper as Tony stumbled, until he fell down onto stone. Blood spilled from his lips as he sputtered.

"You have my respect, Stark." I pushed myself up from the ground, and although I swayed for a moment, managed to stay up this time. "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you." 

My eyes widened in horror as Thanos raised the gauntlet and closed his fist, each stone he had beginning to glow with intensity. I opened my mouth to scream, to do anything to stop him--

"Stop." 

My head whipped over to stare at Strange as he managed to sit himself up. "Spare his life... and I will give you the stone." Thanos hesitated for a moment, as though thinking the deal over.

"No tricks?"

"No tricks." Thanos moved his hand to aim the gauntlet at Strange, threatening him if he tried anything.

"Don't," Tony begged, his voice weak. As much as I hated the idea of giving Thanos an advantage, he would kill both Strange and Tony now if he didn't.

"Strange." His eyes flickered back to me for a moment, and I nodded. We couldn't afford to lose Tony.

Strange lifted one hand, and a moment later, the green gem materialized, and he sent it toward Thanos. With a stoic expression, he placed the gem into the spot by the thumb. His hissed for a moment, the power taking over him, before he smirked.

"One to go."

Suddenly, shots were fired at Thanos again. I looked up to see Peter flying right at Thanos, attempting to crash into the titan. However, Thanos simply summoned a portal, and disappeared to wherever that last stone was.

Most likely Earth.

Peter landed where Thanos had once been, removing his helmet as he looked around, confused.

"Where is he?"

I ran over to Tony and looked down at his wound as he sealed it with some sort of substance in his suit. I stared for a moment longer, before standing up and looking at the destruction.

"Did we just lose?"

“Why would you do that?” Tony asked quietly, glancing at Strange. He paused for a moment. 

“We’re in the endgame now.”


	10. Chapter 10

Peter and I held onto each other as everyone came back together, trying to figure out what to do next. We'd lost, and at the moment had no way of knowing how things were going on Earth. From what Tony had said, the Avengers were strong, but Thanos had gotten the better of us...

Peter Parker reached down and helped Tony up, still suffering from his wound. He appeared to at least be in a stable condition, which eased my mind a little bit. All our ships were wrecked, but maybe we could find some way to at least get him to the nearest inhabited planet and find someone would could help him.

"Do you think you're okay?" Peter whispered, leaning his forehead against mine. I couldn't bring myself to say anything, so I just swallowed and nodded, brushing my lips against his.

"Something's happening." 

Everyone turned to Mantis as she looked around with wide, scared eyes, before she suddenly dissolved into a brown ash, which fell away to the ground. My hand flew to my mouth as I gasped, staring in horror at what had once been one of us. I whipped my head around to Drax, and stumbled back closer to Peter as his arms faded away.

"Quill?" The rest of his body followed, drifting to the ground like horrific snowflakes.

"Steady, Quill." Tony took a step closer to us, when his eyes somehow widened even more. I felt his grip loosen, and when I turned to him, cried out as I watched his body fade away.

"Aw, man."

My hand reached out as I felt a dull pain in my chest, catching some of what remained of Peter in my hands. It sat in my hands, light and delicate as though it were a good thing, and I broke out into uncontrollable sobs as I stared down at the pieces in my palms. He was gone, blew away in an instant. Neither of us got to say goodbye, I never got to tell him I loved him.

"Tony. There was no other way," Strange said. I heard the sound of wind blowing, and knew he'd gone, too.

"Mr. Stark?" Through tears, I turned my head and watched Peter Parker, the young kid, stumble toward the man he looked up to, looking as though he were in pain.

Not him, too...

"I don't feel so good." His voice wavered as though he were afraid as tears began to slip down his eyes.

"You're all right." Tony was attempting to keep him calm, despite the fact we knew what was happening.

"I don't know what's happening." Each word cracked in his throat. "I don't know--" Peter Parker lost his balance and fell into Tony's arms, beginning to cry. His fingers began to turn to ash, and I bit my lip to hold back more cried as I watched him beg. "I don't want to go. I don't want to go, sir. Please. Please. I don't want to go. I don't want to go."

The two of them collapsed, and Peter Parker laid down for a moment longer.

"I'm sorry."

His body blew away, causing Tony's arm to slip and fall down on where Peter Parker had once been. Due to the blood on his hand, a few pieces stuck to Tony's hand. He raised it to his face and fell completely silent.

A numbness suddenly bit at my arm, and I whipped my head down. My breathing began to increase as I watched my own arm turn to brown ash. The numbness began to spread, washing me away in the wind as I looked at Tony with fear. He opened his mouth, then shut it again, and before darkness closed in, I looked at him and uttered four words.

"You can fix this."

I reached my head up and took a final breath before my chest went numb, my jaw, my cheeks, my nose, my ears.

The last thing I saw was Titan's orange sky.


End file.
